T he good news is that Apple has announced the ten millionth song to be downloaded from its now officially wildly successful iTunes Music Store (iTMS). The bad news is that it was an Avril Lavigne tune*. Apple announced today that the ten millionth song sold at 11:34 PM PDT on September 3rd, last week.
The company says that the service has averaged 500,000 songs per week since its launch in late April, though the iTMS is still limited only to Mac OS X users. Apple continues to say that a Windows version of the iTunes Music Store will be available by the end of the year.
Apple sold the first million songs in just the furst week of operation at the iTMS, and the next million tunes in another 9 days after that. After eight weeks, the company hit the 5 million song mark. That was on June 23rd during the WWDC, which means that Apple hit the 10 million song mark just nine and half weeks later. Appleis average for the first eight weeks was 625,000 songs per week, while the company has averaged 526,316 (rounded up) songs per week since the WWDC. The average weekly total for the 17.5 weeks between the iTMSis launch and September 3rd is 571,429 (rounded up) per week.
From Apple:
Apple® today announced that music fans have purchased and downloaded over ten million songs from the iTunes® Music Store since its launch just over four months ago, averaging over 500,000 songs per week. The ten millionth song, "Complicated" by Avril Lavigne, was purchased and downloaded at 11:34 p.m. (PDT) on September 3.
The combination of the iTunes digital music jukebox, the pioneering iTunes Music Store and the market-leading iPod™ digital music player provide users with a complete solution for buying, managing and listening to their digital music collections anywhere. The iTunes Music Store will be available to Windows users by the end of this year.
"Legally selling ten million songs online in just four months is a historic milestone for the music industry, musicians and music lovers everywhere," said Steve Jobs, Appleis CEO. "Apple offers the only complete solution for digital music with iTunes and the amazing iPod, which now holds 10,000 songs in your pocket."
"We are honored and grateful to be one of the top selling artists in the iTunes Music Store," said Chris Martin, singer/songwriter of the Grammy-award winning band Coldplay. "Itis clear Apple has delivered a working and successful platform for music fans to discover artists and purchase both albums and single songs instantly with ease. We embrace these efforts enthusiastically and see them as the future of our business."
The revolutionary online music store offers songs from major and independent music labels, groundbreaking personal use rights, and one-click download directly into Appleis integrated digital jukebox software, iTunes--all for just 99 cents per song. Users can listen to free 30-second previews of any song in the store, then purchase and download their favorite songs or complete albums in pristine digital quality. Songs can be burned at no extra cost onto an unlimited number of CDs for personal use, played on up to three computers, and listened to on an unlimited number of iPods.
You can find more information on the iTMS at Appleis Web site.